At the eleventh hour, Cities Skylines 2 emerges as a GOTY contender in a truly packed year

There’s no better feeling when a game is at preview than the limited-time session simply melting away. I mean, it also sort of sucks when a developer chaperone steps in to tell you that your time is up – but when it feels like you blink and a whole hour goes by, that’s how you know you’re playing some real good stuff. Such was the case for my first hands-on with Cities Skylines 2.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: crikey, that headline is a big strong. Game of the Year? In a Zelda year? Against Baldur’s Gate?! And, yeah – it’s probably a bit hyperbolic. But if we could hop into the future and ask future Alex exactly which of 2023’s games he’s played the most of and had the most joy from, it’s probably going to be Cities Skylines 2 or Street Fighter 6. How many play-throughs of BG3 I do, or how many more hundreds of hours I sink into Starfield or Cyberpunk are irrelevant – I know this game is going to eat my life.

Full disclosure: I know this in part because I have hundreds upon hundreds of hours logged on the original Cities Skylines. But that is no guarantee that a sequel is going to be good – especially when a sequel involves wiping away years of improvements delivered via expansion packs and mods. Things can go badly wrong. But after fiddling with it for slightly over an hour, I’m convinced Cities Skylines 2 is on the right path. The best path.

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